Upcoming DreamBuildPlay Entries Look to Expand Co-Op
Every year Microsoft holds its DreamBuildPlay contest to promote the XNA Development Kit on the PC and Xbox 360. The contest allows independent developers a chance to showcase their best work and enter for a chance to win some great prizes - including a publishing contract. We had a great tip from a member about two upcoming entries that feature cooperative play in a unique manner.
Band of Bears is the first title mentioned from developer Cellar Door Games. As soon as you start the video you'll get a Castle Crashers vibe, but you'll quickly see the game has a lot more to offer. Instead of being a straight up hack and slash, Band of Bears combines puzzle solving elements with action elements.
Sporting some slick hand drawn visuals, Band of Bears will have four player co-op. The really unique feature that the game offers is called the B.E.A.R.S. system. Bear Effort Adaptive Room System will dynamically alter enemies and puzzles so they are solvable by the number of players playing the game. Think of it like an advanced version of what Splosion Man does with switches in the co-op mode.
The next game is called Duality ZF from developer Xona Games. Duality ZF is a SHMUP game with a unique twist. While the game does provide co-op play for up to four players, it allows each player to control two ships at once. What does that mean? Prepare for some serious on screen chaos as 8 ships and thousands of bullets fill the screen.
Duality ZF will feature six different gameplay modes, and every single one supports the 8-ship/4-player co-op mode. The game also promises to support online leaderboards for each mode, so you'll be able to build a kickass team and dominate the leaderboards.
The DreamBuildPlay contest for 2009 is currently closed, and winners will be announced in September. Good luck to both of these games!
Thanks to Teddy for the tip!
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@pheriannath, thank you!!
@roland, you are right with the analog stick control, but wrong with the trigger firing. In "dual play" the ships auto-fire, to make dual play as easy as possible.
@HobocidalManic, dual play is optional, and has it's own separate scoreboards. Nobody has to play that way if they don't want to.
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So many games have bad control that gamers assume we do, too. We have put a lot of thought into our control scheme, weighing all the pros and cons as well as beta testing it for nearly a year now. It works, and it's easy.
The triggers do control the spread and laser weapon (they morph into each other), but they are not required. You can stay in spread forever if you want, for example. This is by design.
Dual play is not hard. We recommend starting off in easy modes. All you have to do is move each ship when you want, and they stay still (and firing) when you are not touching anything. It ends up that most Xbox users are already use to independent thumb controls from 3D shooters (moving and aiming).
Finally, if dual play ends up too hard, we have solo play (single ship) and multidirection modes, too. Solo play is the default mode. We don't force anyone into dual play. Each control mode has its own scoreboards.
Hope this clears up some concerns!
I have problems seeing out of both of eyes at once, so controlling two ships will be difficult for me, but I'll give it a try. It's really cool that you're posting here. It's always nice to see a developer eager to get people to play their game.
You're welcome. As a long-standing fan of SHMUPs, it's awesome to see people who obviously love the genre as well keeping it alive.
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